In the first quarter of 2021, the job vacancy rate in the EU reached pre-pandemic levels, signaling that employers have more difficulty finding workers, with Croatia following the trend, according to an Eurostat report on Wednesday.

The job vacancy rate in the EU was 2 percent in the first quarter of 2021, up from 1.8 percent in the previous quarter and in the first quarter of 2020, and the highest since Q4 2019, before the pandemic.

In the EU, the job vacancy rate in Q1 2021 was 1.9 percent in industry and construction, and 2.1 percent in services.

Among the member states for which comparable data are available, the highest job vacancy rates in the first quarter of 2021 were recorded in the Czech Republic (5 percent), Belgium (3.5 percent) and the Netherlands (3 percent).

In Croatia, the rate was 1.5 percent, the same as at the start of 2020. In Q4 2020, it was 1 percent.

The lowest rates in Q1 2021 were observed in Greece (0.3 percent) and Spain (0.7 percent).

The largest decreases in job vacancy rates in Q1 2021 were recorded in the Czech Republic and Luxembourg (both -0.7 pp) and Sweden (-0.4 pp). The largest increases were recorded in Italy (+0.8 pp), Lithuania (+0.5 pp) and the Netherlands (+0.4 pp).